A trained historian with fields in women, gender, sexuality, and African-American histories who has emerged as a leading scholar in disability studies. His research focuses on language attitudes towards signed languages within academia and linguistic protectionism among deaf communities. A central theme in his work is the politics of the body and difference.

Professional Interests: 

Crip Linguistics, Disability and Language Ideologies, intercultural and disability competencies in sign language teaching, queer and trans studies, sign language interpreting and communication equity. 

Select Publications: 

Sheneman, N., & Robinson, O. (2024). Tearing down the bypass, rebuilding main street: Uncovering epistemic injury, violence, and erasure in signed language interpretation. In Critical Approaches to Institutional Translation and Interpreting (pp. 50-74). Routledge.

Henner, J., & Robinson, O. (2023). Unsettling languages, unruly bodyminds: A crip linguistics manifesto. Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability, 1(1), 7-37.

Henner, J., & Robinson, O. (2023). Crip linguistics goes to school. Languages, 8(1), 48.

Robinson, O. (2022). Puppets, jesters, memes, and benevolence porn: The spectacle of access. Przegląd Kulturoznawczy, 53(3), 329-344.

Sheneman, N., & Robinson, O. E. (2021). Helpers, professional authority, and pathologized bodies: Ableism in interpretation and translation. In Translating asymmetry–Rewriting power (pp. 55-75). John Benjamins.

Robinson, O., & Henner, J. (2018). Authentic voices, authentic encounters: Cripping the university through American Sign Language. Disability Studies Quarterly, 38(4).

Robinson, O. E., & Henner, J. (2017). The personal is political in The Deaf Mute Howls: Deaf epistemology seeks disability justice. Disability & Society, 32(9), 1416-1436.

Robinson, O. (2010). ‘We are of a different class. 'Ableist rhetoric in Deaf America 1880–1920. Deaf and disability studies: Interdisciplinary perspectives, 5-21.